Monday, April 19, 2010

Moving with Pods

I have not blogged for a while because I have been in the process of moving to Seattle, using U-Pack pods. If you should ever care to do this, here is the drill: Two 6' x 7' x 8' metal containers are deposited in your driveway by a forklift. These containers turn out to be somewhat smaller inside, which means two weeks of diagrams drawn on graph paper are no longer useful. My sons, daughter-in-law, and friend fit things in as carefully as possible. These "things" included 50 boxes of books, which are easy to fit in, and such odd-shaped objects as vacuum cleaner and elephant tables, which are not. The fork lift returns, takes away the pods, and sends them by truck across the country, where you assemble a group of beyond-the-call-of-duty friends to unload them. Here is a virgin pod, unloaded:Here is one jammed to the ceiling, which Jack and Rod are manfully divesting of its contents. These contents shifted in transit, qualifying all our helpers for hazard pay, and making it clear why I, the packing supervisor, should never aim for a second career in household relocation. The pods cost less than half as much as full-service movers, although of course they involve six times the effort. Would I do it again, should I ever have to move again? Probably not. Despite using a lot of blankets, some of my furniture got dinged in transit. This was my fault more than the moving company's. But I've come to the conclusion that this is a game for younger travelers. Although I would miss all the phone calls to the company so that I could say afterward, "I talked to the pod people last night." For an SF writer, this sentence may be worth the entire experience.